Wednesday, April 28, 2010

New York State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky ... [snipage of sad sob story]

"We have 10,000 New Yorkers on the list today waiting for organs. We import half the organs we transplant. It is an unacceptable failed system," Brodsky said.

To fix that, Brodsky introduced a new bill in Albany that would enroll all New Yorkers as an organ donor, unless they actually opt out of organ donation. It would be the first law of its kind in the United States.

Monday, April 26, 2010

The effort, loosely called e-Health or e-Care, combines health-care technology with 21st-century Internet connectivity. It will allow doctors to interact with their patients through innovations such as video chats, telephone health checkups, and home-health monitoring devices that relay data over wireless Internet connections.

In a rare show of bipartisanship, a member of the other party also revealed she has no brain.

"The development of the broadband network and health information technologies has the potential to truly transform health care and simultaneously enable better outcomes and lowering costs," said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).

Yes friends, web cams and Skype are going to revolutionize medicine because doctors can tell what's wrong with you just by talking on the phone. The same as HP can diagnose your computer over the phone. I hear doctors can be hired pretty cheap in India, kinda like A++ certified computer techs. I'm sure Indians doctors are going to line up in their thousands to take web calls from whining Americans 8-12 hours a day. Sure.

This is my favorite bit though:

One of the new health technologies on display last Thursday was an automatic drug dispenser that can monitor and adjust medication dosages wirelessly, allowing doctors to tailor dosages of drugs such as insulin without having to schedule in-person visits with patients.

"What we're talking about, folks, is using a device like this one," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said, as he displayed the small device. "It attaches to the patient's skin and is loaded with drugs that are administered in the exact way that the doctor prescribes – wirelessly.

"That means that a doctor can vary the doses based on the information the doctor is receiving [from the monitor]. The patient doesn't have to go in to the doctor and then the pharmacy to change his or her prescription," he said.

Nobody is EVER going to hack that eh? No sir! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA!!!!!

Saturday, April 24, 2010

An international team of scientists has discovered striking similarities between the human brain, the nervous system of a worm, and a computer chip. The finding is reported in the journal PloS Computational Biology today....

They found that all three shared two basic properties. First, the human brain, the nematode's nervous system, and the computer chip all have a Russian doll-like architecture, with the same patterns repeating over and over again at different scales.

Second, all three showed what is known as Rent's scaling, a rule used to describe the relationship between the number of elements in a given area and the number of links between them.

Via Dan Savage's blog at The Stranger, some clever chappie (I don't know who) has declared May 20, 2010 "Everybody Draw Mohammad Day," in support of Matt Stone and Trey Parker and in opposition to religious thuggery. Why May 20? I haven't a clue, though it could have something to do with Otto ascending the throne of Greece. Or, more likely, King Sancho IV of Castile's founding of the Study of General Schools of Alcalá.

I will be employing my tremendous skill as an illustrator, of course, and expect that my colleagues will do the same. If they refuse, they will be declared weak-kneed, namby-pamby, quisling infidels and will be shamed on this blog (Though such idle threats rarely work these days; perhaps I could threaten them with a painful death, which seems to do the trick). If readers would like to show their solidarity, please email your Mohammad masterpieces to me here: mmoynihan at reason.com. The best ones will be published on Hit & Run, which, along with the concomitant death threat, is reward enough.

Once again, regular dudes and dudettes are dragging the Legacy Media by the nose, kicking and screaming. This is getting to be a regular thing, eh?

Thursday, April 22, 2010

In a bold predawn attack, gunmen stormed a hotel Wednesday in the heart of the northern city of Monterrey and kidnapped at least three people, officials said.

Mexican media said up to 50 hooded gunmen arrived in a convoy and burst into the downtown Holiday Inn, seizing guests and employees.

Law enforcement officials, offering only scant details by late afternoon, said it was not immediately clear whether a fourth person was seized or how many gunmen took part in the 3 a.m. attack. Authorities offered no motive for the kidnappings, but the attack bore the hallmarks of Mexico's drug gang violence.

Monterrey's mayor, Fernando Larrazabal, said police had trouble reaching the scene because the attackers commandeered cars and used them to block surrounding streets. Larrazabal told a radio interviewer that the kidnappers had disappeared in less than 20 minutes.

Picture 50 bikers with AK47s kidnapping people out of a hotel in downtown London Ontario. That's what this is. Mexico has gun controls that dictate jail time for possession of two or three rounds of .22 rim fire ammunition. Plenty of American tourists have spent time in Mexican jails because of this. Yet, you've got drug gangs that can field 50 men at whim, armed and happy to shoot it out with the cops.But our moral superiors in the Liberal, NDPee and Bloc parties tell us that if guns aren't registered, the world will come to an end.

Hmmmmn. Could be maybe our wonderful opposition leaders are being less than... candid?

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

GPS enabled cameras that can read license plates will be used by British police to run speed traps, of all things. Because you know, photo-radar is just so last century.

From the article:

The Home Office is testing the cameras at two sites, one in Southwark, London, and the other A374 between Antony and Torpoint in Cornwall.

The `SpeedSpike' system, which calculates average speed between any two points in the network, has been developed by PIPS Technology Ltd, an American-owned company with a base in Hampshire.

Details of the trials are contained in a House of Commons report. The company said in its evidence that the cameras enabled "number plate capture in all weather conditions, 24 hours a day". It also referred to the system's "low cost" and ease of installation.

Smile!

I have two questions.First, how long before the James Bond revolving license plate holder becomes the number one street racer speed mod?Second, how long before everyone in Britain gets RFID chipped like a basset hound and bar coded across the forehead?

Saturday, April 17, 2010

A white supremacist rally on the lawn of Los Angeles City Hall ended with a handful of arrests Saturday afternoon as counter-protesters showered police and white supremacists with rocks, bottles and other debris.

[Update, 4:50 p.m.: All five people arrested were counter-protesters, police say.]

A rally by 40 members of a group calling itself the National Socialist Movement drew hundreds of counter-protesters from throughout the region. In the hours leading up to the rally, where members called for the removal of all nonwhites from America's southwest, counter-protesters scuffled with people perceived to be sympathizing with the white supremacists' message.

One man, who sported Nazi tattoos, was severely beaten near City Hall while another man, who carried a confusing sign about religion with a scribbled swastika, was pummeled by a mob of people on Spring Street between 1st and 2nd.

The Los Angeles Police Department went on tactical alert during the event and took responsibility for escorting the white supremacists to and from the demonstration site. Earlier in the week the group had obtained a permit for the demonstration.

No doubt a little investigation would turn up the political affiliations of whoever filed for that permit. My money says Mr. Permit is a Democrat Party affiliated union thug, looking to drum up some bad press for the tea parties and immigration reform.

Getting counter-demonstrators to come and beat them up is a nice touch, eh? I wonder if they all rode the same bus home from the demo?

Now let us see which of the usual suspects are viewing with alarm this return of a basic right to the citizen:

Some police officials are concerned the law will lead to more accidental gun discharges from people untrained in firearm safety, or that shooters in stressful situations will accidentally strike innocent bystanders with stray bullets.

Yes, some "police officials" are concerned that the stupid sheeple will hurt themselves on the sharp edges, now that the padding has been removed.

However, the measure was supported by police unions representing rank-and-file officers, who said their best friend on the streets is a law-abiding citizen equipped to protect themselves or others.

Whereas the guys on the sharp end know who's going to back them up when it all hits the fan.

A Democratic leader, Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, of Phoenix, said the bill deprives law enforcement of a tool "to separate good guys from the bad guys." With a permit requirement, police encountering a person with a concealed gun but no permit had reason to suspect that person was not a law-abiding citizen, she said.

Democrats really like the "guilty until proven innocent" way they do things in France. That's why they like permits and stuff, so they can make you prove your credentials at every turn to make SURE you're not a bad guy this week. Because people go whacky you know, we are all just one bad-hair day away from going postal and killing a mall full of nuns.

But anyway, there you go. Official policy in Arizona, people are free to carry any damn gun they want, when they want, how they want, so long the property owner does not expressly forbid firearms on his property.

Say, that's like two rights in one! right to self defense and the right to control what happens on your own property. Wow. What a freakin' concept!

Predictably, the Times of London LOVES this idea. They can't get enough!

For decades they have thundered along America's highways and choked up parking lots, a symbol of extravagance unchallenged by politicians, emissions standards or common sense.

They are the four-wheel-drive behemoths known to the US Government as "light trucks" and to consumers as SUVs (sport utility vehicles) — but their easy ride as the world's most conspicuous mobile polluters ended this week.

In a coup that achieves something President Clinton promised but never delivered, President Obama has forced the big three US car makers, and their unions, to accept tough mileage rules for cars and SUVs. The rules will cut emissions from vehicles by more than a third over the next four years.

Yes friends, starting in 2016 you will be purchasing some little tiny sheise-auto (that's German for shit-mobile) which gets 30 miles per gallon. It will be called an SUV, but it will be a four-banger sardine can.

Because YOU are STUPID. You must be controlled.

And because he had to announce something to get that off-shore oil drilling off the front page.